Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
OPEN LETTERS 247 Divisions of the Lying-in Hospital of Vienna from the ist of January, 1849, to the last day of December, 1858 ............” H ere follows a summary of the statistics of childbed fever mortality with which we are familiar. An attempt is made to get at the proportion of “ unavoidable ” or self-infection cases, and the conclusion is reached that in this period of ten years in the Vienna Lying-in Hospital at least 1,924 patients lost their lives from avoidable infection. In this number the “ transferred ” cases are not included, and no calculation is made of the number of new-born infants whose blood became infected from the mothers to a fatal extent. In this massacre you, Herr Professor, have participated. The homicide must cease, and with the object of bringing this homicide to an end, I shall keep watch, and every man who dares to spread dangerous errors regarding puerperal fever will find in me an active opponent. For me there is no other means for checking the murder than unsparingly to unmask my opponents; and no one whose heart is in the right place will blame me for making use of this means.” The Open Letter to Scanzoni was addressed to one of his earliest and most bitter antagonists, and but for the participation of Carl Braun, we might add, the most influential and unscrupulous of the opponents of the Doctrine. Herr Hofrath will have learned from my letter to Professor Späth that I have formed a determined resolution to put an end to the murderous practices, and to . effect that object I have resolved to attack unsparingly all who dare to spread error regarding puerperal fever. ‘‘In pursuance of that resolution I shall subject to criticism the essay of Dr. Otto von Franqué . . . ‘‘On puerperal illness in the Lying-in Institution of Würzburg ... in 1859.” “ With Dr. Otto v. Franqué I have no quarrel : I can only commiserate him as a man betrayed, who in good
